Looking back and forward

This photo was taken in Chiapas, Mexico in 2013. At the time I was collaborating with the Mexican government to design and evaluate a health project for indigenous Mexican women to enhance the use of maternal health services. Since then, I’ve completed the first year of my Master in Public Administration and International Development at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

In a few weeks I will travel to Kupang in Eastern Indonesia as a Fellow for the Indonesian NGO, Kopernik (www.kopernik.info). The fellowship is for 10 weeks over the summer. I’ll be supporting Kopernik’s Wonder Women program thanks to the generous funding provided by the Women and Public Policy Program’s Cultural Bridge Fellowship at Harvard Kennedy School.

Kopernik's Wonder Women initiative is making clean energy technologies available to people in remote Indonesian villages, where access to electricity and affordable cooking fuel is extremely limited. At the same time, it empowers women to boost their income through selling solar lanterns, water filters and clean cookstoves in their communities.

I will contribute towards the Wonder Women Eastern Indonesia initiative by developing market assessment methodologies and tools to help scale up the program successfully, as well as conducting in-depth research on clean cookstove usage and adoption among women in Eastern Indonesia.

I'm excited to have the chance to work in Asia for the first time and to apply lessons I've learned in Latin American countries toward closing the gender gap in Indonesia.